Character Creation
Character creation will be done with this template. Ask Game Master Timeon for your own personal copy. Advice - keep a record, preferably not on Google Docs (to prevent docs clutter) of the skill points you spend every level for reference. Basics *'Origin': While your character may be from most places on the world map, there are several Starting Locations that you are restricted to. The Origin field is not asking where your character starts, it is asking where your character is originally from. This means you can put in the name of a region, island or place. *'Languages': Check the Languages page for more information. You should consider your character's backstory and objectives when filling this in. *'Age': The age of your character at game start, which is the year 2485 on the After Spirits calendar. *'Level': You start at Level 1, but level up when you gain 100 experience, as shown by the Experience tab. Check the Levelling Up page for more information. *'Health': In Shatterbridge, you can have between 8-15ish health, check the Combat System for details. *'Spirit Power': Your available energy for using magic, which will work similarly to Health. Check the Combat System. *'Misc': This may show your condition, such as tired or sick. It may unofficially affect your skills and attributes in rolls at the Game Master's discretion. *'Items': Along the course of your campaign, you may gain items of use from the mundane to special. Any effects they have can be elaborated upon in the column or elsewhere. Spirit Power and Spiritual Attunement A quick note on magic. It will mostly be roleplaying based, and the results of your magic, for example in the combat system, will be adapted by the Game Master. Will is the most important attribute for performing well in combat with magic. Nonetheless, for the sake of good roleplaying and a clean transition to game mechanics, Spirit Power and Spiritual Attunement will be used to give the player an indicator of what they are capable of. These fields are filled in by the Game Master. *Spirit Power represents how magically capable your character is. The scale goes between 1-12, with 1 being the weakest of spirits and humans, and a number of 11 and 12 representing the strength of the Archons. Do not worry about filling this in. It is just a guideline for your roleplaying that the Game Master will take care of. *Spiritual Attunement represents how well-trained your character is with magic. If Spirit Power is a pool of magic available to your character, then Spiritual Attunement is the size of the bucket that your characer uses to throw that magic around. A spellcaster tied to a powerful spirit may be 5 on the Spirit Power scale, but only 1 out of 12 on the Attunement scale, meaning he or she can only cast a few weaker spells at a time, even though the character can keep doing it for a long time. Thus, the scale is 1-12 for magic, and is a guide for roleplaying. Testing your limits ingame is a good and realistic way of finding out how capable you are in relation to the numbers on your sheet. Your character's Intelligence is also a good roleplaying indicator for how complicated your spells can be, and how well you perform with the intricacies of magic. Attributes All template character sheets start with 1 attribute point in each of the 4 attributes, and next to the attributes there is the Skill Bonus. The Skill Bonus is the effect that the attribute has on the corresponding skill. Skills are colour-coded so that the player may easily identify which skill links to which attribute. In the beginning, each attribute has -2, meaning rolls made on skills will have a penalty of -2 towards beating the Difficulty Rating (DC). A +1 bonus on skill rolls occurs at every 2 levels after 4 attribute points, meaning +1 at 6 attribute points, +2 at 8, +3 at 10, up to a total of +5 attribute points at 14. The 4 attributes are as follows: #'Strength:' Any character destined to be engaged in physical combat will benefit from this attribute. It also helps with physical tasks such as Climbing and Swimming. #'Dexterity: '''This attribute helps evade attacks, speed up your character and helps with ranged combat, as well as certain skills. #'Will:' Charisma and willpower have been grouped together to represent the character's force of will and personality. When it comes to dealing with spirits and people, Will is important. #'Intelligence:''' Vital for many skills, intelligence represents a character's adaptability and ingenuity. While many magic-users appreciate the usefulness of Will, the technologically savy often fall back on their intelligence instead. All characters start with 12 attribute points to spend, which can be used to diminish the skill penalty on certain attributes while leaving room to bolster core attributes. Skills Skills can be raised to a total of 10. *Appraise: This relates to buying and selling of goods, being able to judge the value of an item and your familiarity around objects in general. *Bluff: Need to lie your way out of or into a situation? Create a cover-story, or spread false information? *Climb: If you have to scale a building to escape your enemies, or climb up a cliff-face to get behind enemy lines, climbing is a valuable skill. *Diplomacy: For all sorts of scenarios, talking may be preferable to fighting. Diplomacy can also be used to convince followers to your cause or change people's minds. *Disable/Enable Device: The first trained skill on the list. Disable Device is about disarming traps or machines, or activating them. This skill is also what is rolled on for lockpicking. *Handle Animal: Need to tame an animal, or calm it? Perhaps a spirit in animal form needs to be comforted or communicated with? All nature-lovers behold, the utility of handling animals. *Heal: Got a friend who is bleeding to death? It's fortunate you invested points in Heal, because you just might save his life. Heal can also be used to refer to knowledge of biology in general, and treating sicknesses. *Intimidate: Sometimes talking your way out of a situation is less useful than shouting your way out of a situation. Your reputation and magical abilities may also add to your Intimidate check, not just your Strength. *Linguistics: While you may not know all languages in the world, interpreting ancient tongues or scripts may still be possible thanks to your studies into linguistics! Learning new languages and speaking dialects is also all down to this skill. Being able to speak dialects also makes you more approachable to locals. *Perception: Sometimes, people may try to ambush you, or lie to you. Being observant is a good deterrent. *Ride: Travelling long distances is not so bad when you have a horse, or other quick animal. *Runes: Use of runes is a complicated affair. Get one wrong and you may blow yourself up. Reading runes can also prevent you from blowing yourself up on somebody else's set-up. *Gather Information: If you're in a town and want to spend the next couple of days digging up leads, this is the skill for you. *Burglary: A skill that can easily be renamed Stealth, for the more traditional rogues. This skill, however, is broader than that, and also includes Pickpocketing and other relations. *Survival: Trying to hide in the wilderness, and not sure which berries are good for eating? Need to follow some tracks? You may want Survival. *Swim: Being the ablest warrior in the land is of no use if somebody pushes you into a river. Skills with 0 points can not be used during gameplay, and skills in italics require roleplaying to increase DURING gameplay. (You can increase italics skills no problem during character creation). Multiple Skills For blacksmiths, weavers, farmers and bankers. Decide on the nature of your bardic skills and other schenanigans, even create some custom skills, with Game Master's approval. These use the same skill points you would spend on more basic skills such as Diplomacy and Survival. Combat Skills Finally, Combat Skills also use the same skill points that you would spend on Skills and Multiple Skills. This part of your Character Sheet is divided into two - Core Combat Skills and Combat Feats. The only difference is that Core Combat Skills each cost 1 skill point, while Combat Feats do not level up to 10 ranks and have different costs, which are displayed on the sheet. While Skill and Multiple Skill rolls are done with 3d6, it is fairer on players and NPCs to use a d20 for combat. *Eagle Eye: Increases your chance to hit with ranged weaponry, which includes both bows, crossbows and firearms. The formula for hitting enemies is (Dexterity Bonus/Penalty) + (Eagle Eye) + d20, and if you roll higher than your enemy's chance to dodge, you hit. Each point of Eagle Eye gives a 0.5 increase in chance to hit, for a total of 5 once you have invested 10 skill points in the skill. *True Strike: Increases your chance to hit with melee weaponry. The formula for hitting enemies in melee combat is the same as for ranged, but uses the True Strike skill instead of Eagle Eye. As with Eagle Eye, the advantage you gain is 0.5 to a maximum of 5. *Dodge: While Eagle Eye and True Strike help you to hit, you will be rolling against a dodge formula, which is (Dexterity Bonus/Penalty) + (Dodge Skill) + d20. By increasing your Dodge, you make yourself harder to hit. Finally, this also works in increments of 0.5, to a total bonus of 5. Combat Feats *Brutality: Increases your melee damage. As Combat Feats don't scale from 1-10 like other skills, Brutality can only be increased 3 times. The first time costs 3 skill points and gives you +1 damage. The second time costs 5 skill points and gives you +2 damage. The final time you can increase Brutality costs 7 skill points and gives you +3 damage. *Armour Penetration: Armour can mitigate up to a total of 4 damage on the most heavily protected targets. Most soldiers in the game only have armour that protects them from 1 point of damage. Nonetheless, this skill can be useful for taking down stronger foes. Each point increases penetration by 1. The cost starts from 4, rises to 6 and tops at 9 for a total of 3 armour penetration. This skill only applies for melee characters. *Exploit Weakness: For melee warriors who rely on Dexterity rather than Strength, the penalty of -2 or -1 can be frustrating. Spending 2 skill points to buy this skill removes the Strength penalty when it comes to dealing damage. *Second Skin: Wearing armour can be cumbersome. It gives penalties to certain skill rolls and can make you easier to hit. Investing points in Second Skin decreases the penalty a character endures when wearing armour. The first point costs 3 skill points, the second costs 5, and the final one costs 7. This means you can reduce armour penalty by a total of 3. *Toughness: You get 1 extra point of health for every point of Toughness you buy, up to a total of 3 extra health points. The first level of Toughness costs 2, the second level costs 4 and the final level costs 6. *Opportunity: You have a small chance of striking your enemy twice instead of once. Every time you hit your enemy, a d20 will be rolled. The chance of Opportunity working depends on your Dexterity Bonus. If you have a Dexterity Bonus of 5, that means if you roll a 15-20, you will hit twice. If you have a Dexterity penalty, you have to roll a 20 to double strike. Opportunity costs 6 skill points and can only be bought once. *Critical Hit: This allows you to do double-damage if you roll a 20 with any weapon that deals 2 or more damage. For a weapon that does 1 damage, your chance to critically hit is increased from 18-20. Critical Hit costs 3 skill points and can only be bought once. *Whirling Blade: Buying this skill for 5 skill points activates the ability to do a Whirling Attack, which uses Strength instead of Dexterity to hit your enemies, and does damage to multiple enemies at once. It also has a small chance of hitting allies. You have to specify when you want to do a Whirling Attack, but you do not have to call it a Whirling Attack when you do this. Traits and Flaws Is your character blind in one eye? A drug addict? Reacts badly when people say the word "sheep"? Anything you want the GM to know, to take into consideration? Here's the place to put it - but you can also leave these fields blank. During the course of the RP, if something relevant and character-changing happens it can be recorded here, like losing a leg. Category:Player documents